Hi, Setting up a new virtual directory/application in IIS, Is it giving this wired error when you try to browse to localhost saying “HTTP Error 503. The service is unavailable.” ? Don’t just give up, you can try the below step to fix the issue.

1. Check if the application pool is not started/enabled for the website in IIS.

2. Check whether the identity assigned to the application pool is not active and uses the correct password. Sometimes Developers use their own LogInId as appPool Id and change password later point. This happened to me 🙂

3. Check whether the identity has access to physical folder the Virtual directory is pointed to.

Step 4: Select the Application Pool and click on the Action Bar on the right side, Edit Application Pool Section Advance Settings Link.

Step 5: Verify the identity mentioned in Process Model Section Identity Textbox is active and uses the correct password, click on the right side of Identity Textbox in case you want to change the id/password.

Step 6: Now go back to Application pool list window, Right click on the application pool name in the Application Pool list and then select the Start option from the context menu.

Step 7: Also check the identity has access the physical path to which the the virtual directory. If the error wouldn’t get resolved after performing steps 1 to 6.